Cabinets for merchandising machines adapted to dispense various articles or substances in response to the deposit of money in the machine usually have large doors covering substantially the entire front of the machine and adapted to be swung open on a hinge for servicing of the machine. In addition, in many of the merchandising machines of the prior art, components of the assembly are mounted on the inside of the door. For example, in a machine which is adapted to deliver principal articles of merchandise such as bars of candy or the like, customarily a gum and mint unit is mounted on the inside of the door. In a beverage merchandising machine the cup delivery mechanism may be on the door. Owing to their size and to the equipment supported thereon merchandising machine doors are relatively heavy. A further requirement of a merchandising machine is that the door normally be locked to prevent access to the interior by unauthorized persons.
Many merchandising machines of the prior art are not provided with door handles for facilitating movement of the door from closed to open position. Owing to their great weight, many of the doors develop a "sag" after a period of time in use resulting in difficulty in moving the door to its open position after it has been unlocked and to the difficulty of closing the door. Even where the door of a merchandising machine is provided with a handle, difficulties have been encountered owing to the ease with which the projecting handle is damaged. In order to service the machine the operator must move the door to its fully open position. Moreover, owing to his preoccupation with the task of loading the machine with merchandise the serviceman cannot exercise any great degree of care in protecting the handle against damage. As a result the handle may be forcibly moved into contact with an adjacent wall or with a machine at the same general location and thus be damaged.
In addition to the foregoing, most large merchandising machines of the prior art are provided with handles of the screw-in type which must first be unlocked and then unscrewed to permit the door to be opened and which must be screwed in and locked after the door has again been closed. It will be appreciated that these operations take an inordinate amount of time for a routeman who is servicing a large number of machines or who is trouble-shooting during peak sales hours. Further, some handle assemblies of the prior art have openings through which wires or other probes can be inserted by vandals or by dishonest persons attempting to cheat the machine.
I have invented a door operating assembly for a merchandising machine which overcomes the difficulties incident to opening and closing merchandising machine cabinet doors of the prior art. My operating assembly overcomes the problem of door sag. It positively cams the door toward its open position in response to a relatively small manual effort. It exerts a lifting force on the door as the door is moved to its fully closed position. When the door lock is opened the operating handle of my assembly pops out to a position at which it is accessible to the operator but at which it is not readily damaged. My assembly is fast acting both in the opening and closing operations as compared with screw type handle assemblies of the prior art. It is so constructed as to inhibit the introduction of wires or other probes into the machine through the handle assembly. My operating assembly is simple in construction and in operation for the results achieved thereby.